CARIPLO-CIRCLE (DCM.AD004.148)
Thematic area
Chemical sciences and materials technology
Project area
Chimica verde e processi per la sostenibilità (DCM.AD004)Structure responsible for the research project
Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche "Giulio Natta" (SCITEC)
Project manager
FRANCESCO SECUNDO
Phone number: 0228500029
Email: francesco.secundo@scitec.cnr.it
Abstract
CIRCLE - Citrus waste recycling for added value products - project aims at facing a specific issue of the citrus processing industry: the management of high loads of solid waste, mainly composed of peel, pulps and seeds. With a circular economy approach, focused on the efficient use of natural resources, CIRCLE's main target is the improvement of the sustainability of the citrus-processing productive chain, exploring the use of citrus-processing-waste (CPW) as cheap feedstock for the production of different added-value products:
- Bacterial cellulose pellicles.
- Perillyl alcohol, perillaldehyde and perillartine from biotransformation of limonene.
- A pectin-based biodegradable food-packaging film.
The overall output of the project will be a novel CPW biorefinery, in which the biomass will be pretreated and fractionated in different components (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, limonene, pectin, proteins) which will undergo to different (bio)processes, giving the already cited products.
All the three outputs expected from this project have characteristics that make them very interesting in different industrial fields.
Goals
CIRCLE project aims at the improvement of the sustainability of the citrus-processing productive chain, exploring the use of citrus-waste as cheap feedstock to produce different added-value products:
- Bacterial cellulose pellicles.
- Perillyl alcohol, perillaldehyde and perillartine from biotransformation of limonene.
- A pectin based biodegradable food-packaging film.
- Use of organic waste as well as their transformation in products characterized by high added value.
CIRCLE project aims at the application of a circular economy approach to the citrus-processing industry, valorizing the citrus waste through its refining and transformation towards added value products: bacterial cellulose pellicles, molecules from biotransformation of limonene, a pectin based biodegradable food packaging.
In summary, CIRCLE can provide the necessary tools for the evolution of biomass pretreatments and
separation, microbial fermentation and bioconversions, into key bioeconomical processing chain for
recycling the citrus processing waste stream into added-value products, with a number of industrial
applications.
Start date of activity
01/09/2021
Keywords
CITRUS WASTE, BIOREFINERY, ADDED-VALUE PRODUCTS
Last update: 05/06/2025